Deanna Thompson on This Vocation Now
The most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast series Callings features a conversation with scholar, writer, and speaker Deanna Thompson.
Search Results for: Deanna Thompson
Remembering Frederick Buechner, 1926-2022
Many readers will immediately associate the name Frederick Buechner with a passage from Wishful Thinking that they know by heart: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” It’s a rich sentence, full of possibility, and has been foundational for many of us in helping students through vocational discernment. But Buechner said a great deal more about vocation, whether in essays or fiction or memoir, and I’d like to explore his wider vision briefly as we mourn his death on August 15, 2022, at the age of 96.
Theological responses to the pandemic
On June 17, 2020, the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) hosted a webinar on “Theological Responses to the Pandemic.” The goal of this event was to offer a range of theologically-grounded responses to the current public health crisis and to the deep social inequalities that it has laid bare. Four NetVUE scholars took … Continue reading Theological responses to the pandemic
Pandemic reflections: the virtual body of Christ
“The Priesthood of All in a Time of Pandemic,” a short reflection written by Deanna Thompson, the Director of the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community at St. Olaf College, appeared last week in a blog hosted by the United Methodist Church. In it, Deanna explores suffering, community, and the body of Christ, themes … Continue reading Pandemic reflections: the virtual body of Christ
Minding our metaphors
Jason Mahn (Augustana College) has a new piece in the Christian Century that explores the American reliance upon war metaphors in times of crisis, including this current pandemic. It brought to mind the classic, still powerful book Metaphors We Live By (1980, with a new afterword in 2003) in which the authors (George Lakoff and … Continue reading Minding our metaphors
Called to a Pedagogy of the Cross
The Christian commemoration of Good Friday reminds us that we are called to sit at the cross not because we have to go there to find some suffering, but because that’s where we already are. We can’t move quickly to the celebration of Easter that everyone prefers, especially this year, because we’re called to stay tucked in our tombs and homes and online. This cross isn’t going away easily or soon. But it is where we find each other and God.
